Cardinal stays hot, tops No. 16 Arizona St.
Stanford wins fifth straight heading into showdown with Arizona
STANFORD >> Josh Sharma had been an afterthought for most of the season for the Stanford Cardinal. In a crucial matchup for a share of first place in the Pac-12, Sharma emerged from the shadows.
The junior powered the Cardinal to a 86-77 victory with five impressive dunks in the second half of Wednesday night’s showdown with No. 16 Arizona State, including monster dunk midway through the half that brought the crowd of 4,014 fans at Maples Pavilion to its feet and pushed Stanford’s lead to 15 points.
Sharma, who had been battling a stomach bug, appeared to be remedied by the dunks. The backup center raised his hands in the air, soaking in the noise from the crowd after each slam he threw down.
“I was just trying put emphasis on bringing energy when I got out on the floor and focusing on doing my job,” Sharma said.
Sharma’s 14-point performance was by far his best game of the season, as he was one point shy of his career-high in what was Stanford’s biggest test of the Pac-12 season so far.
“It’s pretty easy when you got guys like Dorian (Pickens) just sucking guys in and finding the open guy,” Sharma said. “Missing a couple of shots allowed me to put them back. It’s easy when you have teammates setting you
up like that.”
Pickens, who was coming off a career-high 28-point outing against Washington, once again paced the Cardinal with a team-high 19 points, hitting three 3-pointers on the night.
“Dorian has the green light,” coach Jerod Haase said. “I have the ultimate confidence in him. We want to shoot the basketball early and often.”
After leading by as many as 15 in the second half, the Cardinal (11-8, 5-1 Pac-12) saw the Sun Devils (144, 2-4) pull to within two points with four minutes remaining. But the Cardinal received a huge pair of free throws from reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week Daejon Davis and Oscar Da Silva to relieve some stress. The Cardinal never trailed in the half.
While Haase was pleased with the multiple individual high-scoring performances on the night, Stanford’s ability to
hold a hot-shooting Arizona State squad to 8 for 21 from three-point land
was the biggest win of the night for him.
“We really felt like defending
the three-point line was a priority,” Haase said. “Our transition defense to take away threes was a big part. We continued to score on the offensive end and when they cut into it, we stopped them.”
Davis got his teammates involved early, registering five assists in the first half. That along with 10 firsthalf points from Pickens helped the Cardinal carry a 37-35 lead into halftime. Davis finished the night with 13 points and eight assists.
With Arizona’s win over Cal earlier in the evening, Stanford had to win in order hold even with the Wildcats for first place in the conference.
Stanford’s fifth straight win sets them up for a showdown with Arizona on Saturday at Maples, with sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 on the line.
“We’re not looking too much into the rankings. We’re taking it one game at a time,” Pickens said. “We look forward to playing against Arizona and not buying too much into the talk.”